Chapter XI: Chesterfield. 1694-1773

To the expression of the opinion or feeling of Lord Chesterfield on butchering, given, in its place, in the body of this work (page 140), is here subjoined the remainder of his paper in _The World_. The value of such testimony may be deemed proportionate to the extreme rarity of any protests of this sort from those who, by their influential position, are the most _bound_ to make them:--

“Although this reflection [the fact of the preying of the
stronger upon the weaker throughout Nature] had force enough to
_dispythagorise_ me _before my companions_ [in his college at
the University of Oxford] _had time to make observations upon my
behaviour, which could by no means have turned to my advantage in
the world_, I for a great while retained so tender a regard for
all my fellow-creatures, that I have several times brought myself
into imminent peril by putting butcher-boys in mind, that their
Sheep were going to die, and that they walked full as fast as
could reasonably be expected, without the cruel blows they were so
liberal in bestowing upon them. As I commonly came off the worst
in these disputes, and as I could not but observe that I often
aggravated, never diminished, the ill-treatment of these innocent
sufferers, I soon found it necessary to consult my own ease, as
well as security, by turning down another street, whenever I met
with an adventure of this kind, rather than be compelled to be a
spectator of what would shock me, or be provoked to run myself into
danger, without the least advantage to those whom I would assist.

“I have kept strictly, ever since, to this method of fleeing from
the sight of cruelty, wherever I could find ground-room for it;
and I make no manner of doubt, that I have more than once escaped
the horns of a Mad Ox, as all of that species are called, that do
not choose to be tortured as well as killed. But, on the other
hand, these escapes of mine have very frequently run me into great
inconveniences. I have sometimes been led into such a series of
blind alleys, that it has been matter of great difficulty to me to
find my way out of them. I have been betrayed by my hurry into the
middle of a market--_the proper residence of Inhumanity_. I have
paid many a six-and-eightpence for non-appearance at the hour my
lawyer had appointed for business; and, what would hurt some people
worse than all the rest, I have frequently arrived too late for the
dinners I have been invited to at the houses of my friends.

“All these difficulties and distresses, I began to flatter myself,
were going to be removed, and that I should be left at liberty
to pursue my walks through the straightest and broadest streets,
when Mr. Hogarth first published his Prints upon the subject of
Cruelty.[306] But whatever success so much ingenuity, founded upon
so much humanity, might deserve, all the hopes I had built of
seeing a Reformation, proved vain and fruitless. I am sorry to say
it, but there still remain in the _streets_ of this metropolis,
more scenes of Barbarity than, perhaps, are to be met with in all
Europe besides. Asia (at least in the larger population of it--the
Hindus) is well known for compassion to ‘brutes’; and nobody who
has read Busbequius, will wonder at me for most heartily wishing
that our common people were no crueller than Turks.

“I should have apprehensions of being laughed at, were I to
complain of want of compassion in our Laws [!]; the very word
seeming contradictory to any idea of it. But I will venture to own
that to me it appears strange, that the men against whom I should
be enabled to bring an action for laying a little dirt at my door,
may, with _impunity_, drive by it half-a-dozen Calves, _with their
tails lopped close to their bodies and their hinder parts covered
with blood_....

“To conclude this subject--as I cannot but join in opinion with Mr.
Hogarth, that the frequency of murders among us is greatly owing
to those scenes of Cruelty, which the lower ranks of people are so
much accustomed to; _instead of multiplying such scenes_, I should
rather hope that some proper method might be fixed upon either
_for preventing them_, or removing them out of sight; so that our
infants might not grow up into the world in a familiarity with
blood.

“If we may believe the Naturalists, that a Lion is a gentle animal
until his tongue has been dipped in blood, _what precaution ought
we to use to prevent MAN from being inured to it, who has such
superiority of power to do mischief_.”--_The World_, No. LXI., Aug.
19, 1756.